Method of sealing packages



(No Model.)

G. O. GONROY.

METHOD OF SEALING PACKAGES.

No. 455,962. Patented July 14,1891.

[nVQ-wfar 1 m: nonms-vzrsns 00., vno'ro-um, WASNINGTON n c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES C. CONROY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

METHOD OF SEALING PACKAGES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 455,962, dated July 14, 1891. l

Application filed July 5, 1889. Serial No. 316,542. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES 0. Connor, of

Detroit, in the county of WVayne and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of SealingPackages, of which the following is a specification.

- My invention consists in a method of sealing envelopes or parcels to prevent their being opened and again closed without indicating that they have been tampered with, hereinafter fully described and claimed.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a tool which may be used in practicing my invention, and

'Figs. 2, 3, and 4.- are detail views thereof.

Fig. 5 is a perspective of a tack or staple which may be used in practicing my invention. Fig. 6 is an elevation of an envelope with a portion of the address side cut away, showing the application of my invention to an envelope.

A indicates a tool on the principle of an ordinary clutch, having two arms 0, pivoted together by the pivot B. One of the arms has on its end apost E, substantially the size of the staple, which should be made round for a round staple or rectangular for the ordinary staple used in binding papers.

11 represents a spring secured to a block I on the arm which carries the post E, and F represents a staple-holder on the end of said spring H, made of such form as to receive and hold a staple G (indicated in dotted lines) and held in such position that when the jaws of the tool are closed the post E will pass through said staple-holder F and force the staple out and through the paper inserted between the jaws. The other jaw of the tool is provided with a sharp point having knifeedges, as shown at D, and is provided on its upper side with an anvil depression, preferably cup-shaped, as shown at din Figs. 2 and 3. This anvil will of course be made to conform to the style of staples used, the one indicated in the drawings, as shown in Fig. 5, marked G, consisting of a disk of thin sheet metal provided with two or more downwardlyextending'points g.

K represents an envelope sealed according to my invention, the address side being cut away to show the mode of sealing.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The envelope may be closed and sealed in the usual way, or the wrapper orenvelope may be folded aroundthe parcel and either gummed or not, as desired. A staple is then inserted in the staple-holder F, with its points projecting outward from said staple-holder. The

point D is now inserted through the envelope or wrapper, either at the edge or at any other convenient point, making therein a small slit,

as shown atJ, Fig. 6, and is pushed in between the envelope or wrapper and inclosure until the staple G comes over the lap of the two portions of the envelope or wrapper, when the jaws O are brought together, forcing the points D through the envelope or wrapper and clinching them on the inside of the envelope or wrapper in such manner that the staple cannot be removed to open the package except by tearing it out bodily, in which case the fact that the package has been tampered with is obvious, for it cannot be again rescaled ex-,

cept by using a larger staple. i

It is evident that the form and size of the staple may be varied, and that various tools may be made use of toclinch the staple. It will now be observed that in this present case the staple or fastener used is forced from the outside of the overlapping folds or flaps of the envelope into and clinched in the interior of the said package without penetrating the contents thereof or the opposite side of the envelope and without injury .to the same, in contradistinction to fasteners having either a staple passed from the inside of the envelope through the overlapping folds or flaps and another inserted from the outside {thereof and clinched within the inner staple, such inner staple forming an anvil for the outer one, or

one in which staples are secured to the inher, respectively, the outer folds, and then clinched or riveted one to the other. In

these instances two staples are required to gle multiple-pointed staple through the over- I when the sealing is completed, as and for the lapping folds and flaps of such package from obj eet set forth. the outside thereof into the interior and clinching the points of the staple against the inner- 5 most side of such folds, the anvil againstwhich Witnesses:

the points are bent being inserted through a CYRUS E. LOTHROP, slit in the envelope and Withdrawn therefrom GEO. H. LOTHROP.

CHARLES C. CONROY. 

